Portrait of my husband

I've made numerous attempts to draw my husband but he is frustratingly difficult to draw. He has the impression that he is less bald than he is and less jowly too. I chose only to return to this subject only because the Musee D'orsay impressionists are in Oz and a self portrait of Vincent Van Gogh was featured in posters everywhere. Vincent has a beard and my hubby has chosen to grow a goatee recently to make up for his lack of hair. As we all know, I'm no Vincent but an attempt in his style would be a learning experience.


Unfortunately Vincent had a full head of hair which lent interest where my subject lacked. It is a reasonable likeness of hubby although he is not as sombre in real life. Of course I was not aiming to capture his essential personality, rather just imitating a style.

Portrait for Mother-in-law's 80th birthday

Those of you following my blog may remember that it is my mother-in-law's 80th birthday and I promised her a portrait of herself. Of course I promised this sometime in January and thought it easy enough to complete one in time for mid April. This was not to be. I did many portraits but was not satisfied. Finally, in a bit of a panic, I did one that I was pleased with. It has her in a characteristic pose. Unfortunately, the framers couldn't frame it in time. Well, it has finally been collected this week and here it is.

Due to the glass, there is some reflection that I could not get rid of, what a pity! But I think it is such a pleasure to draw older people. They have such interesting lines, creases and folds.

Family Portraits

I struggle to get a good portrait of my hubby, as although he is willing to pose, he tends to slump down the sofa and watches TV with a glazed look. This portrait is from a low angle and it is rather unflattering. However, he tells me he can see his various brothers and nephews in the picture. I should really indicate the pillow he is propped up on as it looks strange otherwise.

I also managed to get my mother in law to agree to pose for me. Unfortunately I used a white ground, which is a big no-no with pastels so it looks quite washed out. She thinks it quite flattering as the wrinkles are less obvious than in reality.

Portrait of daughter

After some research on pastel colours for skin tones, I purchased two new colours - pink and a browny pink. Pastel portraits that I've done to date usually have olive skin tones which is more tinted towards the orange hue. However, my husband is very fair and so a closer representation would involve pinker hues. I asked my daughter to pose for a photograph which I used as the basis for this portrait. She has olive skin in real life but I was determined to try my new colour scheme! It looks like her, but not 100%. As I've said before, drawing children is difficult - any more lines on the face and they look much older. I hope this portrait doesn't suffer too much from this common error - she is 5 years old. I'd be interested to hear what people think.

Portrait for my mother in law

My mum-in-law turns 80 in April and she has always been a great supporter of my art work. For a gift I wondered if she would like a flattering portrait of her (she is very vehement that flattering is a necessity at her age) or one of her son and grand-daughter. I thought I'd try the latter because it is easier to get the subjects together and I might even be able to coerce them into posing whilst I added the finishing touch.

The results is not a total likeness but close enough. I managed to get my husband to pose for the finishing touches but no way was the 5 year old able to stay still for longer than 30 seconds. He then said that I had to add more hair because "surely my forehead isn't as empty!" Ha-ha... Anyway, to satisfy him, I did so and now the portrait looks like him 10 years ago!
I continued to struggle with getting a likeness of the 5 year old - children are HARD to paint, they have little defining features and have generally smooth complexions. There is not much to distinguish my little darling from other children.
However, I'm not unhappy with the results because this shows them as they are a lot of the time, enjoying cuddles and a closeness between father and daughter. I feel sure that my mother-in-law will like it - she adores her grand-daughter.